"I wish
you wouldn't make the strings such an important part of your arrangements because,
frankly, they're only a tax dodge!"

Tommy Dorsey (to arranger Nelson Riddle)

LOST AND FOUND: At
the Ivy Room in Albany the other night, the Big Money in Jazz Band was playing
a Louis Armstrong tune when trumpeter Jim Gammon told trombonist Mal Sharpe
that his glass eye had fallen out. (TIC realises this sentence has the ring
of political incorrectness but doesn’t know euphemism or modern term for
“glass eye.” Ocular prosthesis?)

“Half the band
started crawling on the floor looking for the eye,” says Sharpe, “ while the
rest continued playing. Gammon was fearful that Stuart, the tap dancer, an
Ivy Room regular, would crush the object.” When the audience realized what
was up, many joined the search, lighting up the floor with “a surprising
array of flashlights and lasers.” Finally, KCSM DJ Dave Ramirez spotted it,
lying on a carpet near the trumpeter’s chair. Gammon raced to the restroom to
wash it, returning to the stage in time to join in on “Struttin’ With Some
barbecue” and go on to the next tune, “ Eye Got Rhythm.”

Found in San Francisco Chronicle

January 15th, 2003

Column “The In
Crowd” by Leah Garchik

YAMAHA TRUMPET for
sale, absolutely immaculate condition and completely unused in the upper
register. Call Bert, first to blow will buy.